Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites.
Malaria parasites and related Apicomplexans are the causative agents of the some of the most serious infectious diseases of humans, companion animals, livestock and wildlife. These parasites must undergo sexual reproduction to transmit from vertebrate hosts to vectors, and their sex ratios are consi...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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2008
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| _version_ | 1797068985168035840 |
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| author | Reece, SE Drew, DR Gardner, A |
| author_facet | Reece, SE Drew, DR Gardner, A |
| author_sort | Reece, SE |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Malaria parasites and related Apicomplexans are the causative agents of the some of the most serious infectious diseases of humans, companion animals, livestock and wildlife. These parasites must undergo sexual reproduction to transmit from vertebrate hosts to vectors, and their sex ratios are consistently female-biased. Sex allocation theory, a cornerstone of evolutionary biology, is remarkably successful at explaining female-biased sex ratios in multicellular taxa, but has proved controversial when applied to malaria parasites. Here we show that, as predicted by theory, sex ratio is an important fitness-determining trait and Plasmodium chabaudi parasites adjust their sex allocation in response to the presence of unrelated conspecifics. This suggests that P. chabaudi parasites use kin discrimination to evaluate the genetic diversity of their infections, and they adjust their behaviour in response to environmental cues. Malaria parasites provide a novel way to test evolutionary theory, and support the generality and power of a darwinian approach. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:17:54Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:54080a36-f956-4120-ba12-aba993c2985b |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:17:54Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:54080a36-f956-4120-ba12-aba993c2985b2022-03-26T16:35:19ZSex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:54080a36-f956-4120-ba12-aba993c2985bEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2008Reece, SEDrew, DRGardner, AMalaria parasites and related Apicomplexans are the causative agents of the some of the most serious infectious diseases of humans, companion animals, livestock and wildlife. These parasites must undergo sexual reproduction to transmit from vertebrate hosts to vectors, and their sex ratios are consistently female-biased. Sex allocation theory, a cornerstone of evolutionary biology, is remarkably successful at explaining female-biased sex ratios in multicellular taxa, but has proved controversial when applied to malaria parasites. Here we show that, as predicted by theory, sex ratio is an important fitness-determining trait and Plasmodium chabaudi parasites adjust their sex allocation in response to the presence of unrelated conspecifics. This suggests that P. chabaudi parasites use kin discrimination to evaluate the genetic diversity of their infections, and they adjust their behaviour in response to environmental cues. Malaria parasites provide a novel way to test evolutionary theory, and support the generality and power of a darwinian approach. |
| spellingShingle | Reece, SE Drew, DR Gardner, A Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. |
| title | Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. |
| title_full | Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. |
| title_fullStr | Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. |
| title_short | Sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites. |
| title_sort | sex ratio adjustment and kin discrimination in malaria parasites |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT reecese sexratioadjustmentandkindiscriminationinmalariaparasites AT drewdr sexratioadjustmentandkindiscriminationinmalariaparasites AT gardnera sexratioadjustmentandkindiscriminationinmalariaparasites |